One Year Later
by Amy Mayr
Summary: Gen. Post OotP, everything goes wrong.


**Remus  
**  
In a week Remus will be at Sirius's funeral; it will be very small and Harry will not be there. Harry will refuse to bring the Dursleys, and cannot come without them. Remus will not notice Harry's absence until Tonks, who will be small and grey that day, mentions it. Later that day Moody will come downstairs to find Remus and Shacklebolt sitting on the living room floor with a bottle between them, watching the Black family portrait go up in cheerful blue flames.  
  
In three months, Black house will look very different. The hallway where Sirius' mother hung will have new paneling and the faint smell of ozone. Remus will have refused to take the wolfsbane potion three times. He will live his months for those three days, and refuse to spend them in a half- human stupor  
  
In six months a magically strengthened door in Black house will shatter. Tonks will have three neat, parallel claw scars that will remain unaffected by her abilities. Shacklebolt will hit Remus with a stunning spell that cracks three of his ribs. He will not notice that he is crying as he forces wolfsbane potion down the unconscious werewolf's throat, and no one will mention it.  
  
In eleven months, two weeks, and six days, Firenze's body will be found by his third period fifth-years and a sixth-year girl. He will still be alive, a little. Crude effigies of human legs and a horse's head will be attached to the halves of his neatly severed body. No one will know how it happened, but when his body is moved the Dark Mark will be soaked red into the charmed forest floor.  
  
In one year, Remus will leave. Only Ginny will ever see him again, and she will not have a choice.  
  
**Ginny & Ron  
**  
In two weeks Ron and Ginny will already hate being the only two children in the Burrow. They will beg, but Molly will refuse to spend the summer in Black house with an invisible ghost and a mad werewolf. Ginny will yell when Molly calls Remus 'the werewolf', and Ron will spend a long time flying and pretending to be invisible.  
  
In two months Ron's hands will shake whenever he hears raised voices and he will leave at night without telling anyone. He will arrive at 93 Diagon Alley soaking wet. There will be lights on upstairs and Ron will bang on the door like a muggle until they come on downstairs. Fred and George will open the door with Lee between them, and Ron's heart will shake in his chest. He won't even mind when George sweeps him into a hug, bellowing "Ickle Ronniekins!", even though Ron is taller than the twins and gaining on Lee. He will stay until his Hogwarts letter comes, and go home only to pack.  
  
In six months Ginny will stand up at the Gryffindor table with her eyes rolled back and blood dripping from her nose. She will turn to Seamus and talk in riddles about debts and banshees and blood, then collapse. Molly will be delighted to have a Seer in the family, and buy Ginny a handsome gray owl. Ginny will laugh when he arrives at her hospital bedside with a pink bow and a letter. She will name him Prometheus.  
  
In Eleven months, two weeks, and three days Ginny will wake up bloody and screaming, and it will take several Stunning spells to make her stop. She won't be coherent for several days, and will never stop believing she could have prevented Firenze's death.  
  
In a year Ron will have several new scars, the Quidditch cup, and a haunted look. He will talk with McGonagall about Auror training, and not bother going back to the Burrow. Ginny will be tired of washing the results of late-night nosebleeds out of her hair and enlists Parvati to help make it short and spiky. Tonks will be delighted when she sees it and spin Ginny around, changing her own hair color to match. When choosing her courses Ginny will read Harry's old books and meet with Trelawney. She will leave the North Tower laughing and refuse to take Divination.  
  
**Hermione  
**  
In a week Hermione will have drawn out a schedule that divides her time equally between Harry, Ron and Ginny, and home. She will hug her parents very hard when she gets home, and Crookshanks will spend his nights sleeping in a warm ball in the small of her back. She will dream of blood and purple light, black veils and flying horses she cannot see. She will also dream of Ginny and Tonks, but she will not remember those because they will not wake her in a cold sweat.  
  
In three months Hermione will have been at the Dursley's three days. They will not know what to think of her, so they will ignore her. Her hands will start to tremble slightly over silent meals. Harry will not notice, and she will not expect him to. She will not so much be scared of Dudley as scared of Harry around Dudley and will only stay a week.  
  
In six months Hermione will have bitten her nails down to the quick. She will be scared and tired, she will be sick of seeing her friends covered in blood. She will refuse to correct Ron and Harry's homework, and the shaking in her hands will not let her knit, but she's had wonderful practice enchanting her quills. She will still dream, but not even Crookshanks's warm, purring weight will keep her from waking up screaming. Professor Flitwick will always compliment her silencing charms, and she will always smile when he does.  
  
In eleven months and two weeks Hermione will not sleep for three days when she realizes that neither Harry and Ron's constant games of wizard chess, nor the wet crunch of a bludger hitting Alicia Spinnet's shoulder bother her much anymore. Later that week, she will walk to class with a fifth year Ravenclaw she is trying to convince to take Arithmacy.  
  
In a year, Hermione will not have spoken in a week. She will sit at a window in the hospital wing and watch the thestrals dive and soar. She will think they are beautiful. She will only cry when she reaches out to pet Crookshanks and touches nothing.  
  
**Harry**

In a week Harry will hate Dursleys worse than ever. He will tell himself they do not deserve Sirius' funeral. On that day he will sit in the backyard and try to figure out how to set fire to Petunia's newly bloomed roses without using his wand. He will succeed. The Dursleys will watch him out the window and do nothing. Harry will get no owl from the Ministry.  
  
In two months Harry will wake up and see Dudley at the foot of his bed. Dudley will look exactly like he has since the Dementor attack. Light, like all his muscle is hollow. Dudley will be gently patting Harry's foot and Harry will curse the fact that his wand is across the room. Dudley will give him a quiet, mad look and tell Harry that it's okay about the Dementors, that Dudley knows they did - and will - always hurt Harry more. Harry will say nothing and Dudley will leave.  
  
In six months Harry will have fallen off the bench in the Great Hall, Ginny shaking and bloody in his lap. Harry will stare and think these things should only happen to him. Ron will be white and staring and Dean will be the one who fetches McGonnagal. Remus and Tonks will arrive later that day with Molly Weasley, but Harry will not be able to look at them without thinking of Sirius and barely tolerate Molly's brief mothering. He will notice neither Tonk's new scars, nor Remus's hunted look.  
  
In eleven months, two weeks, and five days Harry will sleep through the night. He will have no dreams he is aware of, and his scar will not hurt. He will always wonder why, and blame himself as much as Ginny blames herself.  
  
In a year Harry will be tired. Tired of blood and hospital beds, of snakes and cold green light and people he likes dying. He will go back to the Dursley's without complaint.


End file.
